AP: Blackwater Guards Given Immunity

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WASHINGTON — The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month’s deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, the Associated Press has learned.

The immunity deal has delayed a criminal inquiry into the September 16 killings and could undermine any effort to prosecute security contractors for their role in the incident that has infuriated the Iraqi government.

“Once you give immunity, you can’t take it away,” a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said.

State Department officials declined to confirm or deny that immunity had been granted. One official — who refused to be quoted by name— said: “If, in fact, such a decision was made, it was done without any input or authorization from any senior State Department official in Washington.”

A Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, and an FBI spokesman, Rich Kolko, declined comment. FBI agents were returning to Washington late yesterday from Baghdad, where they have been trying to collect evidence in the September 16 embassy convoy shooting without using statements from Blackwater employees who were given immunity.

Three senior law enforcement officials said all the Blackwater bodyguards involved — both in the vehicle convoy and in at least two helicopters above — were given the legal protection as investigators from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security sought to find out what happened. The bureau is an arm of the State Department.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber rode his bicycle into a crowd of police recruits in Baqouba yesterday, killing at least 29 people in a province that has become a battleground among American forces, Al Qaeda fighters, and Shiite radicals. A group of Shiite and Sunni clerics, meanwhile, were rescued one day after they were kidnapped in the capital after meeting with the government to discuss how to coordinate efforts against Al Qaeda in Iraq.


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